Thousand Flower Farm is located on Waldron Island in the San Juan Islands of Washington State. We grow vegetables, fruit, and flowers, raise sheep, weave rugs and knit hats for sale mainly in Friday Harbor, WA on nearby San Juan Island.

Thursday, June 26, 2008

I love roses. I have planted all sorts all around the farm, species roses, old roses, English roses, roses rescued from construction sites. I've gone out and taken pictures of a few of them.The deep pink rose is rosa gallaica officianalis, an old rose that dates back to the Romans and from which attar of roses was traditionally made. The small white single one is rosa spinosissima which grows wild near Deer Harbor, WA. I grew this one from cuttings taken from one of those.This red single rose is a wild rose rosa moyesii which I grew from seed. The big white bush is rosa multiflora, the parent of many, many rambling type garden roses. The pale yellow is Harrison's Yellow or the Yellow Rose of Texas. When I was a kid I rode my horse with a local drill team and we did our presentation to the song, The Yellow Rose of Texas. I have a special fondness for the song and for this rose. The pale pink one is probably my favorite rose, New Dawn. A garden rose at least 100 years old, there was one growing on my grandmother's house when I was little. She gave me a cutting for a present which is still growing on our old place in Tacoma. When I first moved to Waldron in 1972 the cabin I lived in had a New Dawn growing on it which made me feel right at home. I took cuttings of that one and have two big bushes of it here on the farm.